Hi everyone,I've registered few days ago (I read your forum from several months) and today i decided to start my training journal. Right now is pretty late so i will just post a pick of me and the training i had today, tomorrow and day by day i will introduce myself and tell you something about my history, something that i never did and that i hope will help me to progress and to improve in training and in life (yeah, this won't be an ordinary journal). I know, i should have started to type earlier... That's the reason number one because i'm getting a journal: I'm really disoranized

Hey !Goodmorning everyone! I just woke up, had 30 min of stretch and now i'm sipping my protein shake and eating a banana with almondbutter, ready to go out for my workout!It will consist in something like that:2-3 sets of 15-20 reps-pull up-hang clean and shoulder press-deadlift

Last two weeks i've trained with something like DC method adapted to my training style, 2 days on and 1 day rest, doing 1 exercise per bodypart at day (3-5 exercise per day). I also started cutting (probably for the first time in my life) trying a low-carb diet that turned in a keto-diet-something-like that turned into a crap yesterday that was my first serious cheat day xD.I don't know if today i will start back with keto or even with low-carb, for now i will just go training. Last two weeks i feel really weak, moody and pretty estranged. I had no energy, i couldn't do anything exept go to the "gym", end the schedule and go back home... I couldn't even do any cardio, I did it for the first time yesterday since i've started some carb refueling on friday night.Probably i will just eat a balanced diet with moderate carbs, cut them out from the day before my rest/cardio day and boost them back in the next evening for the day after, staying around 2200/300 calories on my training days.

Later in the morning i will make this journal fuckin cool . See you later guys, OUT FOR SOME LIFTS!!!

Stretch: 3 sets of 30 sec at the bottom of skin the cat and 3 sec pike stretch

*Actually i did a first set at 56kg because i misread my journal (reading 54 insted 64) but i recognized it was pretty light so i went to the correct weight and it feel preetty light too xD, here i felt the carbs load, last deadlift workout i struggled with 64kg so i increased just of 2kg but i should have bumped directly at 70kg or more. Crap, i'm bored of that, i want to lift heay! I want to go back lift some RM!

Back home in about 20 minutes, 10 min cycling (uphill xD) and 5 mins to get of the shoes, i had a soy yougurt with a slice of melon, some frozen cranberries and a teaspoon of peanut butter (100% peanuts) for about 350kcal that had 25g of protein (23 from soy and 3 from pb). Definitely, i'm really perplessed about keto, i wont go in that low carb again i think. I will keep them pretty low and load them up a little bit the days before i'll workout in the morning (maybe some oatmeal or a sweetpotato at diner). I never been anticarb, i don't really know why i did it xD.

Before i start i want to tell you something about me, because this "eathing thing" bring me back to another reason for wich i've started this journal.From 12 to 23 of august I've been in Ireland for my "summer holidays" (damn that place was fuckin cold, next year will be hawai!). It was actually a surf-trip. I spent 7 days in Boundoran surfing (and eating lot of junk food) and the remaning 3 days in Dublin where my sister lives and where i found some cool vegan restaurant and vegan bakery. There my days went like: have a run to te park and 100 burpees, go nut with vegan cakes, take a walk in that museum, go nut with icecream, have another run at the park and some calisthenics, go nut at the veg restaurant. Actually life wasnt that bad, i also managed to do not gain that much... I left Rome at 73kg and came back at 74kg .Once back in Rome (yeah I'm italian, probably i didn't told ya yet), I wanted to come back to the healthy lifestyle i had before, i was trying to cut weight from april/may so i decided to start with 4-6 weeks of cutting (properly done), to burn some fat till october, and then start my second year of training BULKING UP AGAIN! (in this year i went from 68kg/no mucles of last september to almost 80kg on march at the actual 72kg that was 73-74 before my vacation, i'll talk about that later but i'm quite satisfied)Anyway i get to the point, I went into some eating disorder in my youth, and being on that cutting diet made me nervous.The first week of my cut I always had concerns about eating too much or too less, most of all i feared to drop down with weight again! But i learned to deal with that and went on with my diet, then the hard part became to eat again something that was not in my schedule, I wanted to control it all... My first cheat day was ridicoulus: i had a cup of oatmeal in the morning, and a banana dipped in peanut butter after workout xD, and then ate even less than what i should to compensate xD.The second week was more tolerable, i was more flexible but always with an eye on the macros, everything looked to be ok, I feel weak by times or some hungry but i was actually cutting so.... Fair game. Then i started with that mind of "refueling carbs in the weekend", to have another cheat. I started friday evening at diner with some sweetpotatoes and an oatmeal later along with my presleep shake (everyting ok!). I woke up the next morning and had an organic chocolate and nuts bar plus my usual protein-fruit shake, after workout i ate some soy icecream with oatmeal then i started to loose control... To feel more like i was bingeing then refueling.If i think now about what i ate yesterday... It wasn't that much, it wasn't that cheat... I just stuffed myself with quinoa at lunch and added some brownrice to my usual tofu later.....After that looks like i've regained control, like i woke up from a nightmare. I feel ok now, with what i ate today, yesterday and with what i'm going to eat. It helped me even to figure out better what to eat in this diet... But what actually matterrs is how i feel yesterday, and last days: this last month has pulled out many skeletons in my closet, old fears, sensations and feelings that i thought where gone. But now I grew up, I'm not the same as before, my life is different, I have had many experiences and achieved many goals things that i couldn't even come close before and I'm not afraid so I'm going to fuck it and gain at least 5kg of lean mass this year! That's my transformation, I dont want to get skinny... I want to bulk up! Because there's no easy way to bulk up! I won't take easy ways anymore!

Let's start this log, I think we can subtitle it Eat and lift! So:

Meal 1 350/400 kcal 30g pro

2 scoop of warrior blend

1 banana with almond butter

Meal 2 300/350 kcal 25g pro

Soy yogurt with fruit and 1ts of peanut butter

Meal 3 350/400 kcal 25g pro

Cauliflower, spinach and avocado salad with limejuice

Meal 4 250 kcal 18g pro (i was out of pumpkin seeds, usually i put a little more =()

Scrambled tofu with 2 zucchini, pumpkin seeds and some green salad

Meal 5 250 kcal 15g pro (+ the almonds)

Unsweetned almond milk with 1 scoop of rice protein + 10 almonds. Usually i get just 2 scoop of protein and the milk but i ran out of powder D:

Meal 6 360/370 kcal 30g pro

Steamed tempeh and green beans

Meal 7 200 kcal 30g pro

Protein shake and flaxseeds

Total: 2100/2200 kcal (170g protein)

I will edit this with next my meals, I think i will go on this way every day: 1 post for training and 1 for nutrition (and editing them when i need), Eat and lift... sound really nice xD

Edit: I have lots of reflections and toughts about today, most are positive . I'm a bit concerned because tomorrow is my rest day but thursday and wednsday i probably won't have the possibility to train, i will figure out something while sleeping... I'm really tired

Monday Sep 08 - 08:15amIt looks is going to be a rainy day so i just went out for an easy run after my morning stretch, 2 miles at easy peace.Once back i made a really tasty creamy-cappuccino-like with some soy milk, hazelnut flour and cocoa powder (don't know where it came of but i have to do it again ) and had a soy yogurt with a diced apple. Good for 370kcal and 20g+ of proteins (it's 20 just from the yogurt). Cinnamon sprinkled all over!! (i would have add some raisins but i'm keeping sugars low, is my rest day).Looks like winter is coming!! (That mean fresh broccoli, i love them, i will make broccoli and cashew soup one of these days )

I will probably workout in the evening, deciding if have an abs workout or something like: db man makers, barrbell row, flat dumbell press, front squat. Anyway, i'm getting one today and one tomorrow so... xD!

muchidna wrote:Could you post a meal plan for your low carbs diet?, would be interesting to see how reliant on supplements it is

I basically have 3 shakes per day: in the morning (pre or post workout), in the evening as snack, and pre-sleep.The last meal plan that i've post isn't that high in carbs (not low carb), i didn't make the count because i'm quitting that but it should be at max 200g carb, and 2200kcal for me is quite straving anyway xD. You just cut of any heavy-carb veggie like potatoes, then grains, cereals and legumes. You can go further and cut on fruit to replace it with fats from seeds, nuts, and fat-rich fruit.Hope it helped, i'm not so good in making meal plans =(

muchidna wrote:whenever i have 2x shakes in a day, i just feel stuffed for the whole day, makes it painful to eat the rest of my calories

Wish was the same for me xD. I think im going for 2500 kcal today and see what happen

AndiMorris wrote:Great journal, I'm definitely following this.

Thank you man! hope you will enjoy it

Update: You know when your body is very tired everywere but your mind is full of energy? Is probably the opposite of how i fell last weeks.... What should you do? You train or you rest? I'm just going to workout cause i'm not sure i will find time tomorrow. Hope 3 days in a row wont beat me too much....Anyway, i feel really creative in kitchen today. For lunch i baked my spinach in the owen with some crusty "cheese" (nutritional yeast) over it xD, and later after workout i have a mind to make some kind of pudding with hemp proteins and broccoli (i keep hemp proteins as backup and i ran out of rawlicious yesterday)

EatingToday i feel far more relaxed with my diet, and hopefully with the rest. We'll get the test tomorrow, i have to wake up early (6 am) and being all the morning around. I had hard times to get convinced and say yes, these days i feel unconfortable with others, like if they can affect my routine in bad, like if i can't find time for my own. I don't know if i'm too strict on that or if i really need some kind of break to put order in my mind. One sure thing is that at the moment training is one of my main objective, and not everyone can understand that, so sometimes is just hard deal with the others. Plus i get frustrated when i have sacrifice something of my training routine, as exaple today i should have rested and tomorrow i should have trained, i had to switch... No problem, everything ok, i was a beast in this evening workout, the only concern i have is about the sleep, i hope it would suffice to recover a little (fear of catabolism: i'll get some oatmeal as breakfast ). Also i need to pack food for tomorrow, and people always complain about that, they think is the "same" if i eat a crap or if i don't try once... yes probably it is, but dedication is the most important part in bodybuilding in my opinion, and nothing is the "same" as train good and eat clean.By the way is nice to be here with you guys, i'd like to write lot more but i need to sleep . Here's today log, sorry if is a little poor:

Meal 1 370 kcal 24g pro

Soy yogurt with diced apple and cinnamon

"Cappuccino" (soy milk, hazelnut flour, cocoa)

Meal 2 250 kcal 30g pro

2 scoop of protein with coconut milk

Meal 3 360 kcal 22g pro

Spinach and "cheese" patties

Mashed cauliflower with spices

Meal 4 320 kcal 21g pro

Scrambled tofu with seeds and quinoa

Meal 5 300 kcal 23g pro

Hemp protein and broccoli smoothie with some avocado slices and a spritz of limejuice (awsome )

Meal 6 360 kcal 33g pro

Steamed thempeh and portobello mushrooms

Meal 7 200 kcal 30g pro

Protein shake and flaxseeds

Total: 2160 kcal (181g protein)

Training

I woke up in a nice mood and had a little run after my stretches, before breakfast. Then in the early evening, around 4:30/5 pm i had:

Hey ya!This morning i had some cool surfing!! Does it count like cardio xD? I had an apple before stepping in the water, i couldn't do it empty stomach D: Damn my back sore everywhere, i hope i didn't make a trouble.Anyway i figured out something very important (being in the water is always inspiring xD): you have to take your time in life, in both ways. I must learn to say "no" to people without feeling in fault and looking for excuses when i don't want to do something whatever the reasons... And i have to take my time in training and in reaching my objectives, is better to don't burn up you today for the rush (actually expressed in anxiety), you know... it's a long way and sometimes being in an hurry to do everything at once may do more harm than good, it makes you lose focus and lucidity, two other very important things along with dedication to reach your goals.

I sprinkled on it some nutritional yeast. I never used this aliment before last week. What do you think about it? Is healty? Too processed? Is the protein quality good? Actually yeast should be just a fungus... don't really know, if the're someone... any help apreciated xD

Ok! From today we get serious!The goal is to get a balanced diet and retain the muscle, i don't want t lose any more weight. I'm going for 2300 kcal for today with 6 meals of 350 kcal (balanced in something like 40/30/30 - 35g/26g/11g) and the usual presleep shake (200 kcal), staying around 180g of proteins wich should be ok. I'm pretty sore so i will just go out for an easy run and some abs/bodyweight/calistenichs, just to relax the muscles!More updates later! Thank you to everyone is reading!Ah! I forgot, i will weight myself from today! before breakfast i was 71kg!

Update: Just back from some training and feeling really better! This diet is much more easy to manage (actually if u don't aim to be precise at the gram you can just count your daily protein, add some fats and put the rest in carbs). Coming back from the park i went to my retail store and bought some lifebars: a new line of rawbar they have introduced, damn tasty and good in nutritional. I just had the chocolate one this morning, wich is 179 kcal, along with my protein shake for a total of 340 kcal.Chocolate and cashew is 179kcal (4pro, 20 carb, 10 fat) and coconut is 191kcal (3pro, 20carb, 11fat)They're making me a good price when i buy a a whole box plus, i'm introducing them vega, sunwarrior and rawlicious products. Hope they will start to stock them, and maybe need some help doing that, i've already worked there few months and have that job again would be nice!

I'll start some log later, i'm really busy today. I'ts ok if i edit posts that much? It looks less messy, what do you think?

Damn guys I missed the log yesterday but i were so tired i fell asleep immediately, and today I woke up really late, like at 9 am. Anyway tomorrow my ordinary life begins day by day to restart, I will have a test in the university in the morning and then from next week some lesson till the time my day will be soooooooo full xD!Today i will workout later, before or after lunch, I have to lift something today.... I'm sleeping too much xD... And then i will study all day!

Yesterday i had a grappling lesson in the evening: a new gym opened just 3 minutes walk from here. It's pretty much as i like it: lots of empty space, bar rack, lots of barrbells and kettlebells, bulgarian bags ecc ecc everywhere. Plus i wanted to start back some fighting/martial arts from long time (i was brown belt in karate, quitted it at 17. Had 1 year of bjj lessons and played rugby for another 1 year)